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Jackson Advocate
Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi
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Elihu Barden, head of Mathematics and Physics at Alcorn College, attended a two-week course on computing machines in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, starting December 3. Lectured by John von Neumann, it focused on problem setup for electronic brains, vital for atomic research and new fields like genetics.
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Mr. Elihu Barden, Head of the Department of Mathematics and Physics at Alcorn College, was a member of a group of mathematicians who met at Oak Ridge, Tennessee to take a two-week course designed to teach the use of Computing machines -- the so-called "electronic brains". The course began on December 3. Dr. John von Neumann, of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N. J., who is considered one of the greatest living mathematicians, gave the first lecture.
Dr. Alston S. Householder, Chairman of the Mathematics Panel of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was director of the computing machine course.
The course was designed to acquaint mathematicians in ways of setting up problems for computing machines.
The development of computing machines is considered one of the significant research advances of recent years. The first such machine was placed in use in 1944 and a large number is now in use or a-building.
The computing machines owe their great value to the fact that, given the right problem, they will unerringly come up with the right answer in a fraction of the time required by human mathematicians. Much present day atomic energy research would be impossible without the machines because of the volume of computation required. Similarly, the presence of those machines has opened up entirely new areas of research in such fields as genetics, medicine, biology, and the like, which had not been explored before because of the sheer volume of computation required.
The list of personnel who attended the course contained, beside Prof. Barden, the following: Robert E. Comeau, Wind Tunnel Computation Section, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Buffalo, N. Y.; Ernest Ikenberry, Department of Mathematics, Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Louis H. Kanter, Department of Mathematics, Mississippi State College; and Dennis W. Strawbridge, Department of Zoology, University of Chicago.
Prof. Barden was the only representative of a Negro institution to attend the course.
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Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Event Date
December 3
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Elihu Barden from Alcorn College joined mathematicians for a two-week course on using computing machines, directed by Alston S. Householder, with first lecture by John von Neumann. The course taught problem setup for electronic brains, highlighting their role in atomic energy and new research fields. Barden was the only attendee from a Negro institution.